THERE WERE CHAOTIC scenes at Limerick Circuit Civil Court today as anti-eviction protesters took over the court and forced it to abandon hearing 170 home repossession orders.Limerick county registrar, Pat Wallace, who was hearing the cases, had to vacate the bench twice after protesters approached him and shouted at him.Protesters claimed the repossession courts were “not legitimate” and were supporting the mass eviction of people around the country.“It’s a kangaroo court,” one protester shouted.Wallace left to jeers and shouting by a crowd of around 150 people who had packed inside the court......The protest became angry as Brian McCarthy, of the Anti-Eviction Task Force and Distressed Mortgage Holders, served the Registrar with a notice to “cease and desist”.The crowd began abusing gardaí and members of the legal profession, as McCarthy was removed by gardaí from the court.“We need to start putting manners on these people,” McCarthy said, speaking outside the court........Mid-way through the protest, Wallace returned to the bench but was forced to retire again due to more jeering from the crowd.As he took to his seat, the crowd drowned out proceedings by singing loudly the Irish national anthem song.

Unfortunately the freemen crap appeals hugely to the evidently demented. Lester is cursed to be forever back in court until the judge sickens of him and he is sent off to pokey for contempt. For now he was lenient in the face of the evidence, that Lester is clinically deranged right now the poor lad.

Unfortunately the freemen crap appeals hugely to the evidently demented. Lester is cursed to be forever back in court until the judge sickens of him and he is sent off to pokey for contempt. For now he was lenient in the face of the evidence, that Lester is clinically deranged right now the poor lad.

I tend to agree. From my diagnosis (mainly based on my degree the Dr. Nick Riviera school of medicine) they're quite utterly delusional.

politics is show business for ugly people, then what is the courts system, especially as it pertains to publicity-conscious lay litigants? A clutch of newly filed lawsuits in Dublin against the central bankers of Europe, alleging the fixing of the global oil market, may give us a clue as to the answer. Is it a bit like the Eurovision?Jerry Beades, the former Fianna Fáil executive member and property developer, has turned relentless lay litigation and anger-driven advocacy into an art form through his exploits with the New Land League anti-eviction campaign and the Friends of Banking Ireland group, which campaigns against the wrongdoings of financial institutions.Beades, an intelligent and determined but invariably bombastic character, has trained his untrained legal guns on a wide variety of targets in recent years. He has sued, and been sued by, several banks, including ACC and Ulster Bank.

He has sued the State over the appointment of Peter Kelly as president of the High Court. He has clashed with a long list of judges, making allegations about the independence of several. He has also supported numerous other lay litigants in legal actions connected to evictions and property disputes with banks.

It should be said that Beades has had a few notable successes with his legal sorties, including one claim against a bank that lost the deeds to one of his properties. But, on the whole, his record has not been flush with victories.Most notoriously of all, Beades was on the receiving end of media criticism last year for the assistance he gave to Brian O’Donnell, of Gorse Hill fame, when Bank of Ireland came to repossess O’Donnell’s Killiney mansion as a result of his debts.

The irony here is that, unlike Beades, O’Donnell is himself a qualified solicitor. But presumably Beades was able to give him moral and practical support, if not legal advice. And he was able to help him cope with the media attention, of course.

Beades didn’t like the way he was portrayed in the Irish media over the Gorse Hill affair. In his eyes, he was ridiculed for attempting to help a man who was being thrown out of his family home. It didn’t matter to him that it was a 9,000sq ft family home or that the bank said O’Donnell owed it €60 million.The coverage of his involvement with Gorse Hill still rankles with Beades. Then again, this is the risk you take when you put yourself, willingly, in the public eye on nationally controversial issues.

This week, Beades branched out from the property industry and filed cases against every central banker and central bank in the euro zone, in addition to the European Central Bank, the European Banking Authority and other regulatory bodies.Matthew Elderfield, the former financial regulator, is also named among the defendants, although it is unclear why, as Elderfield now works for Lloyds.

Beades, who now runs a demolition business in Qatar, will allege that the world’s banks are buying up oil to artificially rig the oil market and inflate the cost of a barrel of crude, propping up loans made to the oil sector. He holds the regulators responsible.

It isn’t just a spotty conspiracy theory to say the oil market is fixed. It is mainstream opinion that the oil market is rigged by producers such as Saudi Arabia. But also by the world’s banks to prop up loans?

This will be for Beades to prove. If he does it, he will be an international hero. If he doesn’t, he should still get plenty of attention-grabbing trips to court out of it. And plenty more chances to tweak the nose of the establishment, which he is, of course, perfectly entitled to do.

Independent TD Mattie McGrath has said he supports the intention behind the delivery of a Plenary Summons to the Governor of the Central Bank Professor Philip Lane and a similar Plenary Summons requesting the Central Bank of Ireland to appear before the High Court within 35 days. Deputy McGrath was speaking after Mr Jerry Beades, Chairman of Friends of Banking Ireland issued identical summons’ against all European Financial Regulatory Authorities and the European Central Bank:“These plenary summons’ were issued in the main in order to clarify what measures, if any, are in place to offset increasing speculation around the collapse in oil prices and the impact that this is having on the associated loans advanced for energy exploration.We wish to highlight that global financial institutions such as Wells Fargo, JP Morgan Chase and Citigroup have publicly admitted to setting aside billions of dollars in reserves to cover losses arising from the collapse in oil prices which in turn is leading to grave concern about this potential contagion spreading to the European banking system.I have asked the Minister for Finance if he will request a report from the Central Bank about this matter and in particular if he is satisfied that the current regulatory oversight is sufficiently strong to detect a repeat of similar practices that were linked to the development of sub-prime mortgage crisis.There is genuine fear that the European banking system and indeed the Irish banking sector is dangerously exposed in this area and that this issue is not receiving the kind of attention that it warrants,” concluded Deputy McGrath.

Jerry Beades’s court challenge to judge’s nomination is haltedClaim Peter Kelly not eligible for appointment as President of High Court ‘entirely misconceived’

A legal challenge by businessman and anti-eviction activist Jerry Beades to the Government’s decision to nominate Mr Justice Peter Kelly as President of the High Court has been halted on all grounds.Mr Justice Robert Haughton granted a preliminary application by the State to dismiss Mr Beades’ case as bound to fail; disclosing no reasonable cause of action; frivolous and vexatious and/or an abuse of process.Mr Beades brought the case for an “improper purpose” for motives including to damage the reputation of named judges — particularly Mr Justice Kelly but also Mr Justice Paul Gilligan and Ms Justice Marie Baker — out of “a sense of grievance”, the judge held.

Jerry Beades’s court challenge to judge’s nomination is haltedClaim Peter Kelly not eligible for appointment as President of High Court ‘entirely misconceived’

A legal challenge by businessman and anti-eviction activist Jerry Beades to the Government’s decision to nominate Mr Justice Peter Kelly as President of the High Court has been halted on all grounds.Mr Justice Robert Haughton granted a preliminary application by the State to dismiss Mr Beades’ case as bound to fail; disclosing no reasonable cause of action; frivolous and vexatious and/or an abuse of process.Mr Beades brought the case for an “improper purpose” for motives including to damage the reputation of named judges — particularly Mr Justice Kelly but also Mr Justice Paul Gilligan and Ms Justice Marie Baker — out of “a sense of grievance”, the judge held.

Jerry Beades’s court challenge to judge’s nomination is haltedClaim Peter Kelly not eligible for appointment as President of High Court ‘entirely misconceived’

A legal challenge by businessman and anti-eviction activist Jerry Beades to the Government’s decision to nominate Mr Justice Peter Kelly as President of the High Court has been halted on all grounds.Mr Justice Robert Haughton granted a preliminary application by the State to dismiss Mr Beades’ case as bound to fail; disclosing no reasonable cause of action; frivolous and vexatious and/or an abuse of process.Mr Beades brought the case for an “improper purpose” for motives including to damage the reputation of named judges — particularly Mr Justice Kelly but also Mr Justice Paul Gilligan and Ms Justice Marie Baker — out of “a sense of grievance”, the judge held.

If that involves putting him into a rocket & firing him into the Sun; I'm all for it !

_________________"Mr Kelly said Ireland’s “reputational capital” had been damaged by “chancers” such as ex-Anglo Irish Bank chairman Seán FitzPatrick, who had been abetted by “buffoons” such as former financial regulator Patrick Neary, Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan and the Taoiseach." - Irish Times 13th Jan 2009

"If you can't be a good example, then you'll just have to be a horrible warning." (Catherine Aird)